American Samoa's Governor, Togiola Tulafono, is to introduce legislation amending the law on mandatory retirement.
The Governor says rather than base retirement on age, his plan is to have employees retire after completing a certain number of years in government service.
He says the change will would allow mobility for people in mid-level positions.
He says currently returning graduates and those below supervisory level positions, cannot move up because more senior and older government employees are not retiring or leaving.
Togiola says exemptions will be given on an as needed basis, for example in cases where employees have skills that cannot be replaced easily.
He adds that he has no plans to reduce the ASG workforce and advised those who favour cuts that this would be disastrous for the economy.
